In the therapy of neoplasia (e.g. small tumors or cancer metastases) that are locally restricted, localized minimally invasive treatment options are an alternative to surgical resection. Many of these methods, such as high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), cryo-surgery, laser ablation, and microwave ablation (MWA) are currently under development. In these methods, tissue containing the cancerous lesion is either overheated or overcooled, resulting in the uncontrolled death (coagulative necrosis) of up to 100% of the cells in the treated area.
Necrotic cells, in contrast to normal or apoptotic cells, show leaky membranes. This fact is exploited by a bio-molecular targeting mechanism currently in a clinical trial phase, the Tumor Necrosis Therapy (TNT), which may be used to deliver toxic payloads to necrotic areas. An example of this new approach is the monoclonal antibody 131I-chTNT-1/B (named COTARA®), which delivers a radioactive isotope (Iodine-131) for targeted radiotherapy (TRT) to the histone H1 in the nuclei of necrotic cells. The radioactivity emitted by the iodine isotope not only affects the targeted, dying, or already dead cells, but also adjacent living cells (by-stander or cross-fire effect).
A problem that a physician encounters when treating neoplasia of a patient is that, if a patient is in need of several therapy modalities, it is time consuming to perform a therapy planning for each modality. This may lead to prolonged discomfort for the patient.
Hence, an improved therapy planning system, method, computer-readable medium, and the use thereof would be advantageous as they provide increased treatment efficiency, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.